Updating pi pico directly or remotely

I’m just getting started with the pico. With the pi I’m used to uodsting it remotely so it doesn’t have to always be plugged into my computer. I just assumed the pico would be the same but after about a day of messing about trying to get WebREPL set up, telnet, ftp), all of which has just sent me round and round in circles) I wondered if I’m just approaching this wrong. Is the idea with the pico that you just have to take it out of whatever device it’s sitting in and update the code manually when you want to change it? I am a bit confused about this as it seems to be what most people do but that seems quite difficult to do if you want it embedded in something and don’t want to be endlessly unscrewing and taking everything apart. On the other hand maybe the idea is that these devices are supposed to be for one very simple bit of code and shouldn’t need changing a lot? I feel I’m missing something very simple here.

do you have a pi pico w

pi pico w allows for wifi and stuff while the others dont

Yes I have a W and have WiFi working - that part was easy. It’s the actual access to it that I’m struggling with

im not sure then, ive never used the pico w

im not actually sure if you even can do it

since pi pico is a microcontroller not a computer

I think this was really my question - is my whole thinking wrong here about how one uses microcontrollers? Is the idea you always update the code when connected to a computer? It sounds from what you’re saying this is the usual approach. Then if you want to change it you just have to connect to it manually?

yes i believe so

microcontrollers are used for garage doors and whatever

comptuers are actual comptuers that you can run an os on

and a raspberry pi you can actually install linux on and such